xiv, 1035 pages : 27 cm

This book creates a new road map for improving patient outcomes across a wide range of chronic health conditions. Chapters have been authored by experts from many disciplines - such diversity of knowledge has not traditionally been integrated into a single text. The approaches to disease management of primary and secondary prevention described here represent the evolution of the functional medicine model over more than twenty years, through the voices of leading clinicians and scientists

* The healthcare system needs to substanially improve the management of complex, chronic disease and the health of an aging population in the 21st century (Section I). The Textbook of Functional Medicine provides a model of care that helps us achieve that goal

* The book outlines a rigorous architecture for embracing available scientific breakthroughs so that powerful tools in systems biology can be brought to bear on improving both disease prevention and treatment outcomes

* The scientific principles, building blocks, and fundamental physiological processes for "comprehensive patient evaluation" are carefully clarified (Sections II through IV)

* An exploration of the fundamental clinical imbalances that underlie complex chronic disease (Section V) precedes a wide-ranging discussion on practical clinical approaches for improving patient management (Section VI)

* Selected case studies demonstrate the practical application of functional medicine methodologies in the context of complex, chronic illness, and the book's final four chapters (Section VII) assist the practioner in Putting It All Together

*Practical appendices include helpful tools and information for clinicians and patients

Includes bibliographical references and index

Section I. Vision and mission of the Institute for Functional Medicine -- What is functional medicine? -- Why functional medicine? -- Training clinicians in new approaches to care -- Changing the evidence model -- Section II. Functional medicine is science-based -- Biochemical individuality and genetic uniqueness -- Patient centered care: antecedents, triggers, and mediators -- Homeostasis: A dynamic balance -- Web-like interconnections: the complex human organism -- Health as a positive vitality -- Healthy aging: The promotion of organ reserve -- Section III. Environmental inputs -- Influence of mind and spirit -- Section IV. Fundamental physiological processes -- Communications: Intracellular and extracellular -- Bioenergetics and biotransformation -- Digestion and excretion -- The biology of inflammation: A common pathway in cardiovascular diseases, part I -- Hormonal imbalances -- Neurological imbalances -- Oxidation-reduction imbalances -- Detoxification and biotransformational imbalances -- Immune imbalances and inflammation -- Digestive, absorptive, and microbiological imbalances -- Structural imbalances -- Section VI. Clinical approaches to environmental inputs -- Clinical approaches to immune imbalance and inflammation -- Clinical approaches to gastrointestinal imbalance -- Clinical approaches to structural imbalance -- Clinical approaches to energy production and oxidative stress -- Clinical approaches to detoxification and biotransformation -- Clinical approaches to Hormonal and neuroendocrine imbalances -- Stress, spirituality, poverty, and community -- effects on health -- Section VII. The patient?s story; the clinician?s thinking -- a place to start -- Assessment and therapeutic strategy -- a place to start -- The healing relationship -- Case presentations

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